Daily Life With A Girl Named Evie
by Mistbrave
Summary: When Evie McAllitster breaks up with her long time girlfriend, she ends up in a dark place with seemingly no end in sight. Not too long afterwards, however, she learns of the Extra-Species Cultural Exchange Program and decides to apply to be a homestay host. Will this help fill the void in her life, or will it lead to something better?
1. Over

This is my first fanfiction, so constructive criticism is much appreciated 😉

Chapter 1: Over

"It's over."

Two words. Not very hard to understand, but sometimes too much to take in.

Evie McAllister lay in bed and staring at the ceiling, thinking about the conversation she and her now ex-girlfriend Gail had a few weeks ago. They'd dated for almost six years, and one day, seemingly out of nowhere, the latter broke it off. They were out to lunch one day at Evie's favorite place, when once a break in conversation occurred, Gail opened up.

"This is going to be hard to say," Gail had said to her, taking Evie's hand in hers, "but I've been thinking about it and... I think I'm gonna take off." Evie looked at her with a confused expression. "What...?" Somewhere deep down, she knew what Gail was getting at, but she didn't want to believe it. "Take off? What... what does that mean?" Gail gave her a frustrated look, "Don't make me spell it out, Eve." Evie continued to look confused. "I... I'm breaking up with you." Evie's heart sank. Knowing it was coming didn't make it any less painful to hear out loud. "B-but..." Evie searched for words, but could only squeak out one: "Why?" Gail sighed. "It's just... There are so many things I want to do in my life and frankly, I don't think I'm going to be able to do any of them if I stay tied down to you forever. We went through high school together and we've had a few good years since then, but I think I need to move on." Evie could feel tears welling up as she desperately tried to come up with a reason to get her not to leave.

"B-but... our six-year anniversary is next month."

"I know, Eve, I just-"

"And you're just gonna... Leave? Walk away like it meant nothing?"

"No, it's not that, it's just-"

"You told me you loved me. That you wanted to be with me."

"Don't make it sound that way. I still love you, I just-"

"But we don't have to break up! I can just come with you and-"

"EVIE!"

Gail's sudden shout caused several heads to turn in their direction.

"See, this is why I waited until the last minute to tell you about this. I knew you'd overreact!"

Evie kept trying to talk her out of it, her hopes diminishing with each passing second, until Gail had enough and destroyed what was left with two words:

"It's over."

She squeezed Evie's hand and kissed her one last time and left.

Evie stayed where she was until they kicked her out at closing time. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't make herself cry because she wasn't sure if it was real or not. At around 8:50, her cellphone started ringing. The name on the caller ID was Marcus Wright, her best friend since childhood. She didn't know why, but just seeing that name made the tears start coming back. She stared at the screen for a few seconds before answering and slowly raising the phone to her ear. "Yo, Evie, you guys still coming tonight? I don't want to end up watching the show by myself!" Hearing Marcus's voice was somehow only made it worse. "Yeah," she said, barely hiding the pain in her voice, "I'll be there in a few minutes." Though she hid it well, Marcus could tell something was wrong; he knew her too well to miss it. "Hey, is everything ok? You sound a little off kilter today."

A long pause solidified Marcus's suspicion. "Hey, if you guys have something else going on today, I can just record the show and we'll watch it later. No big deal." Evie was barely holding the tears back at this point. "No, no, it's... it's fine. I'll be there in a few minutes," she said, her voice starting to crack. "Ok," Marcus said, "I'll see you then. Drive safe, Eve." She hung up the phone, slowly stood and trudged back to her car. The feeling that she was forgetting something followed her all the way to Marcus's house.

He was already standing outside when she got there. When she parked the car and looked at the empty seat next to her, tears starting to roll down her cheeks. She got out of the car just as Marcus got to it. He stopped a few feet from her, still not sure exactly what was going on. "Everything ok?" he asked, "Where's Gail?" She finally let go and began to cry. "She... She's gone..." Marcus knew by now what had happened. "Oh... Oh man Evie, I... I'm so sorry," he said. She ran to him and collapsed into his arms, sobbing heavily. "I thought she loved me, Marcus," she sobbed. "I know, I know," he said, holding her tightly. "We'll figure it out, Eve, I promise. Come on, let's get you inside. I'll make you some hot chocolate and we can talk about it."

Notes:

That's the end of chapter 1! I know it was short, but thanks for reading if you made it this far!

A couple things I wanted to make sure were clear:

The main character's name is Evelyn, but most people call her Evie (pronounced E-vee (like the Pokémon Eevee I guess))

Sometimes people refer to her as Eve (as in Adam and Eve). This isn't a typo, but sort of like a nickname of a nickname that some characters who really care about her sometimes use.

Thanks again for reading, hope to see you back next chapter! 😊


	2. Moving On

Chapter 2: Moving On

It had been several weeks since Gail left, and Evie wasn't handling it well. She stayed at home most of the time, mulling over their last conversation and trying to figure out what went wrong. They'd never moved in together or anything, so maybe she never wanted that kind of commitment. Maybe she liked Gail a lot more than Gail liked her. It didn't matter what the reason was, it wouldn't make the outcome less bleak and depressing.

Her phone buzzed on the nightstand. "Probably Marcus checking up on me again," she thought. She spent the next minute or two trying to decide if it was worth answering or not. Eventually she decided it wouldn't be nice to leave him hanging. She rolled over and grabbed her phone.

"Hey, how's your day going?" the message read.

She started to type out "just as bad as every other day," but deleted it halfway through.

"Fine I guess," she replied.

"I'm off work today, wanna go see the new Revengers movie with me?"

"Nah, I think I'll just stay home today."

"Come on Eve, that's all you do these days. You gotta take your mind off this breakup if you ever want to get over it. It'll be fun, I promise."

Evie didn't want to admit it, but Marcus was probably right. She was starting to go a little stir crazy from sitting around and doing nothing all day every day.

"Ok, I'll go along."

"Awesome! I'll be at your place in an hour."

Evie sighed. Now she had to get out of bed, something she rarely did nowadays unless she had to. She got a quick shower and threw on some clothes. Marcus wasn't supposed to show up for another forty minutes or so, so she decided to watch some TV. When she flopped down on the couch and turned on the TV, the news channel was on. They were doing a segment about the Cultural Exchange Program and how it was affecting daily life around the world.

Evie knew about extra-species people, but she'd never heard about the homestay program until now. She began to wonder if applying to be a host would be a good idea. While she wasn't super into the idea of meeting new people, it would give her something to occupy her time at the very least, and making a few new friends might be just what she needs.

She eventually flipped the channel to some nature documentary about the pacific northwest, which she absentmindedly watched until she heard Marcus's car pull up outside. After double checking that she had her keys, wallet and phone, she turned off the TV and walked out the front door.

Marcus was standing outside his car, leaning against the driver's side door. He smiled as Evie approached. "Look who's finally coming out of the cave," he said, "I didn't make you wait too long, did I?" Evie flipped her bangs out of her eyes. "Just long enough to suffer through half a nature show. Did you know there are four subspecies of Moose in North America?" "Well, I do now," he chuckled. "Listen, thanks for coming out today. I know this hasn't been easy for you, but I know it'll do you some good to get out for a while. We'll see the movie, maybe get some food somewhere, it'll be a good time."

"What, are we going on a date now?" Evie asked, a smile spreading across her face. Marcus's eyes lit up. "Hey now, there's a smile!" he said. "Let's try and keep that up, yeah?" Evie knew in that moment that Marcus was right; this would be exactly what she needed.

They got in the car and drove to the mall, making it just in time for the last showing of Revengers: Endless Tussle that day. After it was over, they walked around the mall talking about the movie and window shopping. Evie even bought a cute beanie with little cat ears on it, which she wore for the rest of the day. She couldn't help but think how nice it was to get to do something with Marcus again. They hadn't really done anything with just the two of them since her relationship with Gail got serious. The three of them would still do stuff on occasion, but it had been a while since they'd had a day like this.

"So," Marcus said while they were at a restaurant later that day, "what's next for Evie McAllister?" Evie looked up from her salad, "next?"

"Well, what're you gonna do now? I know your parents are still paying for everything for you, so you don't HAVE to work or anything, but I'd hate to see you fall back into a funk again."

"Well, I was hoping we'd be able to do this more often, you know, just you and me hanging out?"

"I'm glad you said that, because I'd like that too, but what about when I'm working? My folks don't have quite the vast fortune yours do, and even if they did, I doubt they'd be quite so generous."

 _Hmm_ , she thought, _what should I do now...?_

She looked around the surrounding mall as if some sort of inspiration would come to her from out of nowhere. Oddly enough, though, it actually worked. She noticed a table set up across the hall where several people both extra-species and human were giving out pamphlets and answering questions. The banner above the table read "Sign Up for The Extra-Species Exchange Program Today!" She remembered the news segment she saw earlier that day, and an idea began to form in her head.

"Hey Marcus," she said, motioning towards the table, "you think I'd be any good at hosting extra-species students?"

Marcus looked across at the table and gave it some thought. "I mean, meeting new people isn't exactly your forte, but yeah. I guess I can see you doing it."

"I think I might give it a try," Evie proclaimed. This was the surest of herself she'd felt in a while.

"Alright, wanna go talk to them?"

Evie's sense of determination faded a little. "Talk to them...?"

Marcus chuckled to himself, "Come on you dork, let's go get a pamphlet."

Notes:

End of chapter 2! Don't worry, the actual homestay is just around the corner! We'll be meeting our extra-species characters before you know it.

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Thanks so much for reading. See you next chapter! 😉


	3. Introductions

Chapter 3: Introductions

Evie paced back and forward by her front door, checking her watch every few laps. "They should've been here by now," she muttered. The cultural exchange coordinator had told her that she was coming back today, and this time she was bringing her first homestay guest with her. She had been to her house a few times since she signed up, one time to evaluate the house and another to evaluate her as a person. Her mind raced through all the usual questions she'd ask herself before meeting new people: "Will they like me? What kind of person will they be? What if I screw it up and they think I'm weird? I shouldn't have ever agreed to this! I should just call and tell her it's off, there's no way I can do this! I can barely take care of myself much less someone like-"

A knock at the door cut through her cloud of thoughts and startled her a bit.

"Oh no, they're here!" She looked around in a panic, as if some magic doorway out of her current situation would appear at any moment. There was another knock on the door, which made Evie jump again. "Coming! She yelled. After taking a moment to mentally prepare herself, she put on the best smile she could and opened the door. "Hi! You must be-"

The person on the other side of the door wasn't the exchange coordinator but was just the mailman. He looked at her with a confused expression for a moment before saying "Good afternoon, ma'am, I've got a package for you." Evie's face turned red. "Oh, thanks..." He handed her a box that was rather light for it's large size. She turned to go back inside, but stopped when the mailman said, "uh, ma'am?" Evie's face turned even more red, "Oh no, what did I do now?" she thought. "I'm gonna need a signature for that." Evie put the box down on the floor behind her and signed the paper without saying anything. "Thank you very much, ma'am, have a nice day!" the mailman said as he turned to walk away. "Uh, take... luck!" she called after him, getting her words mixed up. She quickly closed the door behind her, sliding down the wall until she sat on the floor. "Oh my god... I can't fucking do this," she muttered.

Evie sat on the floor for what felt like an hour before she decided that something must be wrong. "Maybe they aren't coming today?" She looked at the package which was still on the floor. "Might as well open it," she thought. She carried the box into the kitchen and grabbed a pair of scissors. It said on the box that she was the recipient, so she set about opening it up. She carefully cut the tape as to not damage whatever was inside and pulled the flaps of the box open. What she saw inside the box made her face turn bright red. "B... Bras?!" She said out loud. There were several bras of different colors and of massive size inside the box. Evie held one up between her finger and thumb and looked at it in complete confusion. "This... This can't be... for me...?" She said, "I didn't order anything like this, and besides... They're freaking huge! Who on earth uses a bra this bi-"

There was another knock on the door.

Evie yelped in surprise. She looked at the box and started to panic. "I gotta hide this! They're gonna think I'm some kind of perv or something if they see it!" She quickly grabbed a roll of tape from a drawer and taped the box closed again, then stuffed it in the cabinet under the sink and trotted off towards the door.

Evie took a moment to collect herself and opened the door. She was greeted by a woman in a suit a little taller than she was with brown hair and sunglasses. "Afternoon, Evelyne," she said. "Hi Ms. Davis, and please, Evie is fine." Davis shrugged, "alright, Evie it is. Well, today's the day!" Evie looked behind Davis, but no one else was with her. "Uh, wasn't the exchange student coming today?" Davis gave her a confused look, "Yeah, they're right here behind-"

She looked behind her and saw that no one else was there. She sighed and put a hand on her forehead. "She must be having a meltdown again. Well, I doubt we'll be able to get her to come to you, so you might as well come with me." Evie could feel her heart beating faster. "Ok," she said, "uh, just let me get my uh... keys... real quick." She fast walked back into the kitchen, where she put her hands on the counter and tried to calm down a little. "It's ok," she thought, "first impressions are important and all, but it's... it'll be fine! I'm sure the student will be nice. I just gotta-"

"Evie?" Davis called from the doorway, "Everything alright?" Evie's pulse started to get faster again. "C-Coming!" She sped back to the door where Davis was still waiting. "Got everything?" she asked. Evie nodded. Davis flashed her a smile, "no need to be worried. Trust me, she's definitely just as nervous as you are." They walked down the walkway and to the street, where a white van was parked. "Sorry about being a tad late, by the way. We ran into a bit of traffic on the way here," Davis explained as they walked.

As they approached the van, Evie noticed the side door was open, but she couldn't see anyone in or around the van. "Dammit, June," Evie heard Davis mutter, "I thought I said no taking off!" They stopped a few feet from the van. "Gracie," Davis called, "Come on out and meet your host!" As she said this, she wheeled around and faced Evie. "Ok, so here's the thing. Gracie, who you'll meet whenever I can get her out of the van, was supposed to be the only exchange student coming to stay with you. Problem is, she refused to go anywhere without her friend June, who's just flown off by herself. We would've considered other options, but we already had the paperwork for her to come live with you, and this way was just easier on our end. Point is, you now... sort of... have... two students to look after. Is that going to be ok?"

"Um, well," Evie started, "actually, Ms. Davis, I'm not sure if-"

"Hold that thought," Jones said, looking up at the sky. She began waving her arms over her head, as if trying to signal someone in the air. "June!" she yelled, "Down here!"

Evie looked up and saw a white flash hurtling towards the ground. It swooped down and slowed to as stop just above the van. The girl dropped onto the van with a loud clang.

She was about the same height as Evie, give or take a few inches. Instead of arms, she had large bird wings and talons for feet. The pattern and coloration of her plumage as well as her yellow eyes and the black highlights in her white hair reminded Evie of an Osprey (another animal featured in the nature documentary from the other day).

She ruffled her feathers and turned towards Evie and Davis. "I thought I said to wait in the van, and more specifically, not to fly off," Davis said. "Come down and meet your new homestay host." The girl rolled her eyes and hopped off the van. She walked up to Evie, an annoyed expression on her face. "I'm June," she said. "Hi, June, I'm Evie," Evie replied. She couldn't get over how cool June was. She was strikingly beautiful, not to mention how fast she could fly and how pretty her feathers were. "Evie?" June chided, "That's not your real name, is it?" Evie's smile quickly evaporated. "It sounds like a cutesy nickname you'd give a nine-year-old." Evie was taken aback by this sudden insult. "It's... I mean... it's just what my friends call me." June rolled her eyes again. "Ok, then what should I call you?"

"June," Davis said, folding her arms, "we talked about this."

"Just being honest."

"Evelyn. Just call me Evelyn, then."

June sighed and looked over her shoulder at the van. "Come on out, Gracie, she's not gonna bite," she said, starting to walk towards the house, "she probably couldn't even if she wanted to."

Evie wasn't sure what she did to piss June off. "Uh, Ms. Davis, did I say something I shouldn't have?" Davis sighed and shook her head. "It's not you. Raptor Harpies can be notoriously... difficult at times. I wouldn't worry too much about it." Evie looked over at June just in time to see her turn her head away. "Raptors also have excellent hearing, so I'd avoid talking about her behind her back if you ever want it to get better," Davis said.

Just then, Evie noticed the other girl, Gracie, getting out of the van over Davis's shoulder.

The first thing she noticed was the long furry cow legs that came out of the van first, followed by the body of a girl maybe a year or two older than she was, and finally the two long horns emerging from her dark hair, which she bumped on the roof of the van as she got out. When she stood up straight, the girl had to be at least seven feet tall.

She stood with an uncomfortable posture, like she wasn't sure what she should be doing with her body. She looked at Evie and smiled sheepishly. "Hi. I uh... I'm Gracie." Evie smiled back almost as sheepishly as Gracie did. "Hi, Gracie, I'm Evie. Or I guess you can call me Evelyn too if you want."

"Actually, I like Evie better. It's... it's a cute name..." Gracie said, blushing.

"Oh," Evie said, blushing as well, "well, I... thanks."

Davis looked back and forward between the two of them, narrowing her eyes. "Well," she said, "now that we've got the introductions out of the way, I think we should head inside. There's a few things the four of us need to go over before I take off. Don't forget to grab your stuff, Gracie." Gracie nodded and quickly walked around to the back of the van, her face still bright red.

Just then, Evie's phone began to ring. It was Marcus, probably just wondering how the first day went. "Go ahead inside," Evie said to Davis, "I gotta take this real fast." Gracie walked by looking down at the ground and carrying both hers and June's bags. Her face was still red from earlier. Evie watched the three of them walk through her front door as she raised the phone to her ear.

"Hey Marcus," she said.

"Hey Eve, so how'd the first day go?"

"Well, they got here a little late. I only just met them a minute ago."

"Them? Wasn't there only gonna be one student?"

"There was, but the girl they signed up didn't want to come if her friend wasn't there with her."

"I see. So, how are they? They seem nice?"

"Well, one's a Minotaur and she seems nice, but her friend is a Raptor Harpy and... well..."

"Yeah?"

"She doesn't seem to like me very much."

"Why do you say that?"

She explained how June mocked her nickname and seemed generally uninterested in her.

"Hmm... I'd give it a little more time before judging her. Some people can be difficult, but sometimes they're just putting on a face. She could just be trying to look tough for some reason."

"I guess that makes sense. Thanks, Marcus."

"No problem. So, what do you have to do now?"

"There's still a few things we have to talk about. They're waiting for me in the house at the moment."

"Oh ok. You go take care of that, then. I'll talk to you later, Eve."

"Ok. Bye Marcus."

She slipped her phone back into her pocket and trotted back into the house. While she knew she'd have to be a little flexible with June, she had a good feeling about the homestay. In fact, she hadn't thought about Gail even once that day.

Notes:

End of chapter 3! Took me a little longer to write this one, but I hope you like what we've seen of our (first?) two exchange students so far.

I decided to do a bit of a jump forward in time between chapters 2 and 3 since the manga/anime doesn't really cover that part of the process in great detail, and I didn't want to just make stuff up that wouldn't ultimately seem very fitting with the rest of the world.

Also, while I was able to do one chapter a day since I first posted up until now, there's a chance I might not be able to keep that up as the chapters get longer. I could try to force out something so I could update every day, but I feel that quality is more important than quantity here, so I'll take my time with it. Something to keep in mind is that I won't ever just stop updating without letting you know in some way. So, unless I've said otherwise, expect that the next chapter is always on the way!

Thanks again for reading, see you in chapter 4! 😉


	4. What Rules Are For

Chapter 4: What Rules Are For

"Now that we're all here, we need to go over the important rules again. I know you've all heard them before, but I want to reaffirm them just so we're clear."

Davis, June, Gracie and Evie were all in Evie's living room. Gracie and Davis sat on the couch, Evie on the chair next to the couch, and June stood leaning against the wall. "June, you can sit down if you want," Evie said, motioning towards the empty chair across from her own. June just sighed and looked away. Davis rehashed the most critical rules for the program, including that the host must accompany the liminals outside the house unless they have an activity pass, the ban on violence between extra-species people and humans, the ban on sexual relationships between them, and the severe consequences for breaking these rules. Evie noticed that Davis looked at June a lot during the part about violence.

"Um, Ms. Davis," Gracie asked, "what about non-sexual relationships? Are... those allowed?" Davis, for the first time since Evie met her, was at a loss for words. Gracie's eyes widened as she realized what it sounded like she was asking. "Oh no, I didn't mean- I-I just meant if I met someone- I'm not asking about a relationship with Evie or anything- I mean I'm not saying I wouldn't date her, because I totally would if she- Wait, no I'm sorry I... Oh gosh..." She buried her face in her hands. Davis took a deep breath. "While platonic relationships aren't prohibited," she said, "they're probably not a great idea because it could end up leading to... prohibited behaviors."

"Why are there so many rules, anyway?" June asked, "All they do is make things worse." Davis shook her head. "Look, I understand that the rules feel pretty restricting, but they're put in place to keep everything organized and everyone safe. That's just what rules are for. If we simply allowed all the extra-species people to flood into the country without regulations, it would be total chaos. Why, are you worrying about relationships too, June?" June's face turned red. She looked like she wanted to retort, but she just bit her lip and looked away. "Well, I think we've covered all the critical stuff. Is there anything else you guys need from me before I go?"

"Actually," Evie said, "there's a bit of a problem with the sleeping situation. We have my room and the guest room, but there aren't any other rooms for anyone in the house." Davis nodded. "I remember from the last time I visited. I've already put in the work order for the expansion; the crew should show up in a day or two to get it done. I'm sure we could figure out a temporary solution until then?" June sighed and frowned. "I guess Gracie's too big to sleep on the couch. Looks like I'm doing it." Evie thought about it, and while she didn't want to be stuck sleeping on the couch for what could end up being a week or two, she decided giving her room to June would probably be the right thing to do. "Hey, you can have my bed if you want, June. You probably need room than I do. I'll be fine on the couch until the expansion is done." June studied Evie for a moment, as if she was trying to find the crossed fingers behind Evie's back. "Okay then," she said cautiously, "thank you, Evelyn." Evie smiled at her, but she just turned her head away.

"Alright then," Davis said, standing up, "now that we've got that settled, I guess I'll be off. Evie, you have my number, so if anything goes wrong, you can give me a call. I'll probably be back to check in after the expansion is taken care of. Sound good?" The three girls nodded. "Great!" She walked to the front door. Evie followed her to the door and stopped her just as she grabbed the doorknob. "Wait, Ms. Davis," Evie said, "So... what do I do now?" Davis took her hand off the knob. "Well, like we talked about earlier, you need to take them out to experience human culture. Either one at a time or both at once. You could go and do anything, really: See a movie, go to a museum, whatever you want, it's pretty much all human culture." Evie thought about this for a moment. "Take them out... Wait, you mean... like a date?" Davis chuckled at this. "I mean I legally have to say no, but you can look at it however you want. Just don't take one out more than the other, we wouldn't want it to look like you've picked a favorite." Evie blushed. "Wait, I didn't mean that's how I wanted to look at it, I just didn't know what you meant!" she said, trying to take back what she said. Davis laughed again, giving her a smile and a wink before opening the front door. "Good luck, girls!" she called towards the living room before closing the door behind her.

Evie stood in front of the door, feeling a little abandoned. What was she supposed to do? Taking them out to experience human culture seemed a pretty loose idea to her, and she didn't even know what to do now, much less for the next week or so. She took a deep breath and walked back to the living room, where June had finally laid down on the couch with her head on Gracie's thigh. "So... what do you guys want to do now?" Evie asked. June rolled her eyes. "What do we want to do now? I thought this was a homestay, not a sleepover."

"Come on, June, give Evie a break," Gracie said. June's attitude and constant quipping definitely wasn't helping Evie's confidence with the whole situation. "I... I just meant since it's so late we can't really go out and do anything today. Is there anything you guys want to do here?" June sat up. "Is Davis gone yet?" Evie looked out the window and saw that the van was gone. "Yeah, she's already left, why?" June stood up and started walking towards the front door. "Well, I don't know what you guys are gonna do, but I'm gonna go fly for a bit."

"But June, we're not supposed to go out alone! It's against the rules," Gracie said, standing up as well. "Look, I've been stuck in a van all day and I really need to stretch my wings a little. Besides, rules are meant to be broken," June said. "No one's even gonna see me when it's this dark, so there's nothing to worry about." Evie took a step towards her. "But will you be ok flying in the dark? Won't you need a light or-"

"Oh stop already, Beverly, I'll be fine."

"B-Beverly...?"

June walked up to the door and tried to open it but couldn't quite work the knob with her wings. After a moment of frustrated grunting, she stepped to the side, refusing to make eye contact with anyone. "Could... could someone get the door, please?" Evie reluctantly opened the door and watched a blushing June step outside and soar into the air.

Evie closed the door and walked back into the living room, where Gracie had sat back down and was staring a hole in the floor. Her eyes darted up to Evie when she walked in, then went straight back down. "I'm sorry about June," she said, "She can be difficult with people she doesn't know." Evie sat down across from Gracie. "So, is she just gonna call me Beverly now, or..." Gracie looked up and shook her head. "No, no, no, she... I don't want to say anything mean about her, but Harpies can be... a little airheaded. Raptor Harpies are usually a little better about it than other species, but she still forgets things and doesn't understand some concepts sometimes. She used to call me Macy or Daisy sometimes before she got comfortable around me. It really frustrates her when she realizes she's messed up; it hurts her pride. If she grew to like me, I'm sure she'll open up to you eventually. You... you seem sweet." Evie blushed and looked down. "Oh... th-thanks, Gracie. You... you too." Gracie mirrored Evie's reaction.

They sat in silence for a minute or two, both stealing quick glances at each other every now and then, trying to come up with something else to talk about.

"So," Evie asked, "you hungry at all?" Gracie shook her head. "We stopped somewhere before we got here. Thank you, though."

They sat in silence for another minute.

"Hey," they eventually both said at the same time.

"You first," Evie said.

"Ok," Gracie giggled, "I had something sent here before we came, I... don't suppose you've gotten a package recently with... um... b-bras in it... have you?"

Evie's face immediately turned beet red. _That's what those were for_ , she thought. Looking now, it made sense why they were so big; Gracie definitely had the bust for them. But how was she going to explain the box being placed under the sink? "Uh... actually, I did. I put it under... the sink." Gracie gave her a puzzled look. "The... sink?" Evie hoped she didn't look as panicked as she felt in her head. She had to make something up on the spot. "Oh yeah, that's... where I put all my unopened mail." Gracie still looked confused. "Oh... I guess everyone does it differently."

Evie stood and quickly walked into the kitchen, where she retrieved the box and stopped to relax for a moment. "Ok," she said to herself, "it's going fine. It's going fine. I'm doing ok. It's alright."

She picked the box back up and carried it back to the living room, handing it to Gracie. "Thanks, Evie," she said. "I have to order them custom made because... they don't come in my size. They usually end up breaking though, so I end up going through a lot. My last one broke on the way here, so it's good the package got here before I did..."

"Oh," Evie said, "so you're not..."

"N-no..."

Evie could read the embarrassment on Gracie's face and decided to change the subject.

"Uh... have you ever played video games before?" Gracie shook her head. "I've heard about them before, but I've never played one."

"You wanna try it out?" she asked, a smile appearing on her face. Something about Evie's smile seemed to put Gracie at ease a little. "Ok," she said, smiling as well.

Evie set about turning the TV and the Xball on, grabbing the controllers, and getting it set up. She plopped down on the couch next to Gracie, handing her a controller. They laughed and had fun for a few hours, playing a lot of Evie's favorite games like Person Fell Flat, Mughead, Unjustice, and Hallow Knight. Gracie had a hard time at first, but with Evie's help she quickly figured it out, and was even giving Evie a run for her money near the end.

"June's sure been gone a while," Evie said after a game, "you think she's ok?" Gracie put her controller down. "I'm sure she's fine... but you're right. It's definitely been a while. Maybe we should give it a little longer, and if she doesn't turn up, we should go look for her."

"Ok," Evie said, "Wanna go another round in Unjustice?" Gracie smiled and grabbed her controller, "You're on!"

Another hour or so passed, and June still hadn't turned up. Gracie looked like she was getting tired as she stood up. "We should probably go look for June now," she yawned. Evie looked at the clock, which read 3:37. "Wow, it got late," she said. "Listen, if you're getting tired, you can just head up to bed and I'll go find June." Gracie shook her head, "I should be there when we find her, she'll be more receptive to me than you." Despite what Gracie said, Evie wasn't sure she'd make it for very long without falling asleep. "But you look like you're ready to pass out," Evie said. It was true, Gracie was barely keeping her eyes open. "No, I'm fine. I just need to rest my eyes for a second..." She sat back down on the couch and began to drift off. "Just... Just for a second..." She was asleep.

Evie couldn't help but think how cute sleepy Gracie was. She grabbed a blanket from the basket under the TV and gently laid it over her.

She grabbed her car keys from the bowl by the door and headed out to find June.

It took almost thirty minutes of driving through the dimly lit streets before she saw June perched atop a street light. She parked the car and hopped out.

"June!" she called. "Hey, Aveline," she replied, not looking down at her. "It's pretty late, Gracie and I were worried about you. You gonna come home soon?" June looked down at her. "I find it hard to believe you care about me, we only just met."

"Well, for one thing, I didn't say anything about whether or not I care about you, I just said I was worried. Look, I know we may have gotten off on the wrong foot, but if you don't care about me, at least don't make Gracie worry." June seemed thrown by this. "Anyway, it's already like 4:00 AM, so if you won't come back with me, just... come back soon, ok?" Evie turned and started to walk back to the car. "H-hey, Beverly- I mean Aveline!" June called. Evie turned back around as June jumped off the street light, flapping her wings to slow her decent. "Listen, I'm... pretty tired from all the flying and being stuck in the van all day, do you... think I could ride back with you?" Evie smiled and said "of course, hop in!" While the thought occurred to her to tell June she got her name wrong again, she remembered what Gracie said about how much it bothers her and decided against it. When she got in the car, she saw June struggling with the car door handle. She quickly got back out and walked back over to June's side of the car. "Here, let me help," she said. When June looked up, she saw tears in her eyes. "Hey, are you ok? What's wrong?" June quickly looked the other way. "N-nothing! Let's just hurry up and go already!" Evie wasn't sure exactly what the problem was, but she had a feeling it had something to do with whatever she was doing out for so long. "Alright, alright," she said, opening the car door, "let's just get home."

Neither of them talked the whole drive back.

"Where's Gracie?" June asked when they walked in the front door. "Oh, she fell asleep on the couch before I left. I figured I'd let her sleep at least until you got back." They walked into the living room where Gracie was indeed still asleep on the couch. Evie put a hand on Gracie's shoulder. "Gracie, wake up! June's back!" she said. Gracie, still mostly asleep, suddenly grabbed Evie by the shoulders and pulled her in, hugging her like she was a teddy bear. She rolled over, pinning Evie under her. "Ack! June, help!" she squeaked. "Oh no," June chuckled, "I've been in this situation before. Trust me, there's no getting out of this one until she wakes up. Well, I'll just go to bed then. Night, Annalyn." June walked out of the room. Evie listened to the floorboards creak as she went upstairs, unable to move beneath Gracie. She couldn't deny it, though, while she couldn't move, she was very comfortable where she was. Gracie's skin was very soft, and her body kept her pretty warm. Drowsiness eventually overtook her and she drifted off to sleep.

Notes:

End of chapter 4! So much blushing! So many pauses! If you're getting annoyed with all the awkward conversations, fret not! There are definitely some more… outgoing characters coming up in the near future. Hopefully you like Gracie and June and are as excited as I am to learn more about them in future chapters.

Thanks so much for reading, see you in chapter 5! 😉


	5. Relapse

Chapter 5: Relapse

"Evie," a voice said, "wake up, Evie, we're here!"

Evie sat up, rubbing her eyes. "We're... what?"

She looked around and found that she was in the passenger seat of a familiar looking car. Out the window, she saw a moonlit beach stretching out in either direction. She immediately recognized where and when she was: it was her and Gail's first anniversary. The first time Gail had told Evie that she loved her.

She felt Gail's hand gently grip hers, and when she turned, she saw her sitting in the driver's seat, smiling warmly.

"I didn't want to wake you since the drive was kinda long, plus sleepy Evie is pretty cute," she giggled.

"Well if you like sleepy Evie so much, maybe you should date her instead," she laughed, the words coming out completely on their own. She wanted to fight the memory, to ask Gail why she left, but she decided to just go with it.

Gail laughed. "Maybe I will. I've heard she can actually hold her liquor."

They sat smiling at each other in silence for a moment, with Evie trying to come up with a clever comeback.

"Yoink!" she said, snatching the hat off of Gail's head.

She quickly got out of the car with Gail in hot pursuit. The two ran down the beach, laughing as they played keep away. Eventually, Gail abandoned trying to get the hat and grabbed Evie around the waist, picking her up and running towards the water. Evie yelped when she saw where they were headed and started trying to squirm out of Gail's grip. Before they got there, Gail tripped and they both tumbled to the ground, knocking the wind out of Evie. As she lay on her back trying to catch her breath, Gail crawled on top of her.

"You ok?" she asked.

Evie couldn't answer as she still couldn't catch her breath.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Gail said, seemingly ignoring Evie's current condition.

 _Something's wrong_ , Evie thought, _why can't I catch my breath?_

"Listen," Gail continued, "I know we've only been dating a year and all... so I'm sorry if this seems a little fast, but I've never felt this way about anyone before."

"Gail, wait..." Evie squeaked out, "Something's wrong, I-"

"You mean so much to me... I just wanted to say-"

"Gail, wait!" She cried as Gail leaned in and whispered in her ear:

"It's over."

Evie snapped awake, gasping for air. She frantically looked around and found that Gracie was still asleep on top of her. She had gripped Evie in a death hug that had pinned her arms to her sides and was gripping so tightly that Evie couldn't breathe.

"Gracie," she gasped, "Gracie, wake up!"

Nothing she did could get any kind of reaction out of Gracie. She tried wiggling her arms and legs as much as she could, but she still couldn't free herself.

Evie started panicking as she started to black out. Using what little breath she could muster, Evie gave Gracie a raspberry on her neck, causing her to giggle in her sleep and shift slightly. Seeing the reaction the raspberry got, Evie quickly did it again, this time causing her to half open her eyes and loosen her grip slightly. She knew that this was her only chance to wake her up before she passed out. Acting on pure survival instinct, she managed to pull her arms up to push on Gracie's chest and smooshed her face right into hers, kissing her on the lips.

Gracie's eyes snapped wide open and she jumped backwards, falling off the other end of the couch. She quickly stood, hands shaking and voice quivering.

"W-what.. why did you..."

She looked down at Evie, staring straight up and gasping for air on the couch. Her eyes widened as she realized what had happened.

"Oh no... I-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to..."

She stood there for another moment before turning and running upstairs.

Evie sat up and listened to the loud thuds of Gracie's footsteps as she scurried up the stairs.

As she caught her breath, she remembered the dream she just had. It was a memory she'd often wallowed in since Gail left, only this time the dream felt so real. It was exactly as she remembered it all the way until the very end.

Until those last two words.

Evie put her head in her hands and began to cry.

Notes:

End of Chapter 5! This one was a bit of a short one. I felt like Evie's dream needed to be isolated to its own chapter since we're about to go through… a bit of a pace change. I also thought that Evie and Gail's relationship needed to be fleshed out a little more (even if it was only a tiny bit).

I'm sorry I kept you waiting for so long. There's a few different reasons I haven't updated in a while, but I should be updating (somewhat) more regularly from now on. I got a little confused with where I wanted this story to go, and I wanted to take some time to improve my writing at least a little (thanks so much Echelon9 for the advice!), and I hope that showed here. After reading what I've already posted back, I noticed a few contradictions and typos, so I'm working on doing that a little less in the future.

This chapter was more heavy stuff, but don't worry, there'll be more monster girls in the next chapter.

Thanks a ton for reading, see you in chapter 6! 😉


	6. A Little Push

Chapter 6: A Little Push

Evie sat against the wall in her backyard, trying to cry quietly so that June and Gracie wouldn't hear her. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, scrolled through her small list of contacts and tapped the name Marcus Wright. Her finger hovered over the call button. The time on her phone was 11:24 AM.

 _He's probably working,I shouldn't bother him,_ she thought.

She stared at his name for another minute or two before hitting call anyway, and spent the next few seconds afterwards before he picked up trying to figure out exactly what she was going to say.

"Hey Eve," Marcus said, "what's up?"

Evie tried as hard as she could to not sound like a blubbering mess. "Hey, so I've been thinking about this whole homestay thing, and… and um…"

Hearing the quivering in her voice, Marcus saw right through her. "Oh no, you're crying again. Come on, what's wrong? First day not go well?"

"No, man… I don't think I can do this."

"Oh, come on. Of course you can!"

"But I don't think the girls like me! One of them already hates me for some reason, and I don't think it'll be long before the other does too!"

"I thought we talked about this already. She can't hate you, she just met you! You're probably just reading into it too much."

"But she's looks so mad all the time and… and… "

"Come on, you just gotta give it a little time! You haven't really gotten the chance to get to know them yet."

"But I don't know if I can! I… I think I should just call Ms. Davis back and tell her I give up. I never should have gotten myself into this and- "

"Eve."

"Huh?"

"What's this really about? You know as well as I do that you're making excuses."

Evie sat in silence for a moment, feeling more tears welling up.

"Eve?"

Another moment passed before her voice cracked and she couldn't hold it in anymore.

"It's not fair!" she sobbed. "Why did she just leave? What did I do wrong?"

"Come on, we've been over this! She just wanted to move on. It's not your fault."

"But it has to be! There's nothing else it could've been! I just don't- "

"Listen, I know it sucks, but its been almost two months since she left. I know that being miserable about stuff like this is way easier than doing something about it, but you gotta start figuring out how to get past this! I'll be here if you need me, but you're gonna have to figure this out for yourself."

"But how do I do that?"

"I don't know, just- "

Marcus's voice stopped suddenly. Evie could hear another voice in the background of the call.

"Shit… Listen, I've gotta get back to work. I can give you a call after I get off if you want but… just give them a chance, ok?"

"Marcus, I don't know if- "

"Please? For me?"

"I… I'll try."

"Thanks, dude. Just keep your chin up… you'll get through this. I'll talk to you later."

"Ok... bye."

Evie let the phone slide out of her hand and fall to the ground. She stayed where she was, pulling up fistfuls of grass and dirt until she cried herself out. She leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes as a cool breeze blew through her backyard.

 _What do I do now?_ she thought.

"You should just stop whining and do something," a voice said, startling her.

She whipped her head around trying to find the source of the voice.

"Up here," the voice said.

Evie looked up and saw June crouched on the roof looking down at her. She scrambled to her feet, wiping her hands on her pants and trying to hide the fact that she'd been crying.

"How… how much of that did you hear?" Evie asked.

"I heard the whole thing," June answered. "Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop or anything, I just… well, I guess that's exactly what I was doing, wasn't it?"

Evie remained silent, as she wasn't sure what to say in response to that. She remembered what Davis had told her about June having excellent hearing, so she probably could hear everything Marcus said as well.

"Look," June said, "I wouldn't have bothered to listen to all that if I didn't think I could help you. Your friend is right: you just have to stop being miserable and do something. If you want to get your ex back, go get her back. If you want your new friends to like you, try to show them you care. The only wrong thing you can do is sit on your hands and cry."

"But there's no way I'll be able to get her back, she's gone! I just don't understand why- "

"It doesn't matter what the reason was. Trust me, I've been where you are before, and it's easy to get bogged down in the why's and the how's. It's fine to be sad for a while, but you've got to start moving forward again sooner or later. If you can't get her back, you have to accept that it's time to move on."

"But how do I do that? It's not like I can just forget about her or something!"

"No, you can't. No one can. The thing is, you aren't supposed to. It'll hurt for a while but taking the time to deal with it is just part of the process. All you can do now is focus on what's in front of you. There are people in your life who care about you, who want to spend time with you and help you figure it out. Focus on them. After a while, it won't bother you as much anymore. It may not ever go away, but you'll be able to handle it then."

Evie stared at the ground, feeling embarrassed. She thought back on the last couple months and how pathetic she must have looked. Gail had probably moved on to bigger and better things by now, and here she was, frozen in time.

"You know," June chuckled, "you remind me of my new homestay host."

Evie's train of thought completely derailed. _Does she not recognize me?_

"She's just like you, actually. She means well, but she's too indecisive."

"Uh, June…"

"I've only known her for a day, but she seems nice. I can tell my friend Gracie likes her."

"Hey June- "

"I can't say I blame her, to be honest. Maybe I- "

"JUNE!"

June seemed to snap out of a trance and looked down at Evie in confusion.

"It's… it's me! It's Evie!"

June studied her for a moment before her eyes widened and her face turned beet red.

"Oh! Oh, uh… Hey Evelyn. How's… how's it going?"

Neither of them talked for a few moments, both struggling to find some way out of their situation.

Eventually, June slowly stood and walked backwards towards the open window to Evie's room.

"Well, if you need me, I'll just be… in here…"

She slowly climbed through the window and closed it behind her.

Evie stood in the center of her backyard shaking. Normally, she'd want to curl up in a ball and hide after an awkward situation of that magnitude. She'd run back to her room and plant her face firmly in her pillow and not come out for the rest of the day until she got hungry, at which point she'd treat herself to a pint of ice cream and a side of self-loathing.

But this time, either because of June's words or the fact that she couldn't go back to her room if she wanted to, she was able to make the shaking stop. Whether she'd meant to or not, June had just given Evie the greatest gift she could have received in that moment: a little push in the right direction.

About an hour later, Evie was sitting on the couch furiously searching the internet for something for the three of them to do that day. She was so focused on what she was doing, in fact, that she didn't notice Gracie walk up behind her.

"Um… Evie?"

Evie jumped, causing Gracie to flinch as well.

"Gracie," Evie said, standing and turning around to face her, "I didn't hear you come in. What's up?"

Gracie looked down at her hooves, clearly still feeling uncomfortable after the incident that morning.

"I… I'm sorry about what happened earlier. I don't know how it keeps happening, but I've done it to June a couple times before too. I didn't mean to hurt you or anything."

"No, no, it's ok. I slept fine… up until the end, anyway."

This statement seemed to make Gracie shrink down even more than she already had.

"Another thing… we haven't eaten yet today, and you don't seem to have any food here, so…"

"Oh, well actually, I was just coming up with a plan for the day that starts with getting something to eat. And then we'll go see a movie or something in the city, how does that sound?"

"A movie?" Gracie asked, looking up at Evie, "Y-you mean… just us? Wouldn't that be a- "

"Oh, no," Evie interjected, "I meant all three of us. You guys gotta experience human culture, right?"

"Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to- "

Evie took Gracie's hand in hers, "Hey, it's alright. You don't have to apologize so much to me, ok? I know this whole program is supposed to be formal or whatever, but… let's just try to be friends."

She might have looked calm and even warm and inviting on the outside, but Evie was trying her hardest not to cave and go back into her shell. In fact, she already would have, had what June said to her earlier not been bouncing around in her head.

Gracie's face turned red and she smiled bashfully. "Ok… I'd like that too."

"You guys done?" June suddenly interjected.

Evie looked behind Gracie and saw June leaning against the wall seemingly unphased by her and Evie's earlier interaction, except that she seemed to be trying to avoid direct eye contact.

"Are we going, or what?"

"Yeah," Evie said, "Let's get going."

The three girls got in Evie's car (with Gracie barely fitting in the back) and drove up to a local burger joint that was one of Evie's favorites. Between the two of them, Gracie and June ended up eating a massive amount of food, which Evie didn't mind, since between the exchange program and her family, she wouldn't have to worry about paying for anything.

After lunch, they drove all the way into the city, where Evie parked the car in a parking garage, and they set off towards the theater to see the movie. As they walked down several blocks, Evie noticed that there were plenty of other extraspecies people out and about, some with their hosts and others by themselves.

They walked through a park and stopped to look at some of the big screens on the buildings along the way. All in all, the trip was going well, and even June seemed to be enjoying herself. All that stopped, however, when they needed to get on the subway. Standing at the top of the stairs, June looked like a deer caught in headlights.

"W-wait… what's down there?" she asked.

"It's the subway. Kind of like a bus that runs underground."

"Under… ground?"

"Yeah, it's not a big deal or anything, just hop on and hop off."

"In that case, do you think maybe we could just walk there? Or maybe I'll just fly and meet you guys there? Something else… anything else…"

Seeing June this upset about going down the stairs seemed to make Gracie uneasy as well. "It can't be that bad… right Evie? I mean… I guess it does look a little tight down there…"

"Oh no, guys," Evie said, "don't both of you get all upset!"

"I just don't do very well underground, Beverly."

June and Gracie stood staring down the stairs as people pushed past them and gave them annoyed looks.

Evie pulled them both off to the side. "Hey, look at me."

They slowly turned their heads. Gracie just looked a little nervous, but June looked like she was in a fear induced trance. She stared blankly at the ground as she shook her head back and forth and mouthed the word _no_ repeatedly.

"Listen guys, I know this is new and scary, but I promise that riding the subway is one of the most boring and uninteresting things you can do in life. There's absolutely nothing to be afraid of."

Gracie gave her a small nod, but June just kept shaking her head.

"Ok, let's try this: we can't walk three across, so Gracie will walk behind and I'll- "

Evie's words caught in her throat as she realized what she was about to suggest.

"Um… I'll hold June's hand and… we'll all walk down together. Sound… sound good?"

June suddenly snapped out of her trance and looked up.

"Hold… your hand?"

"Yeah. Is that ok?"

June's face turned red.

"Well, I guess so," she said, "just so… so I don't trip or anything. I guess it'll be fine." She was trying very hard to maintain her tough girl demeanor, even through her trembling voice.

Evie slid her hand into June's and the three walked down the stairs. The further down they went, the tighter June gripped Evie's hand. The ride was just as uneventful as Evie promised it would be, but while Gracie seemed to overcome her nervousness rather quickly, June buried her face in Evie's shoulder the entire way.

"I've never seen her like this before," Gracie said to Evie as they sat on the train. "I didn't think she was afraid of anything."

"Me neither. It's ok, though. It's…" she lowered her voice a little, "it's kind of cute, to be honest."

June's grip on her hand tightened slightly.

When they exited the subway, June looked a little pale, but seemed fine otherwise. Right across the street from where they exited was the movie theater.

"Looks like we're here," Evie said. "Uh, June… you can let go of my hand now."

"What? Oh!" she said, snatching her hand away. "Let's just go, then."

They bought three tickets at the window and went inside, getting seats right in the center of the theater. The movie was a romance film about two people who meet on a train and fall in love shortly thereafter. In the first twenty minutes or so, June seemed completely uninterested, though Evie suspected that she was merely trying to hide the fact that was enjoying it. By the end, however, even she seemed captivated by it. Gracie, on the other hand, was completely mesmerized from start to finish. 

After the movie, they walked back towards the subway station chatting about the movie. Gracie couldn't express enough how much she enjoyed the film, while June merely said, "it was ok, I guess."

They stopped again at the top of the stairs leading down to the subway.

"Are you gonna be ok on the subway again, June?" Evie asked.

"Oh, uh… yeah. Yeah, I'll be fine. You just have to hold my hand again."

"Ok, let's get going then."

Evie didn't mind holding June's hand if it would help her, but this time, June didn't seem nearly as worried about the subway, despite still asking to hold hands. She also noticed that something about this made Gracie seem a little fidgety as they walked down the stairs.

As they rode the subway back towards the car, Evie looked at Gracie and noticed that she looked a little upset for some reason.

"You ok, Gracie?"

"Oh yeah, it's…it's nothing."

"You're not secretly afraid of this too, are you?"

Gracie's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Yeah, that's it. I… I'm just a little nervous is all. Um… do you… do you think I could hold your hand too?"

"Oh… I guess so."

Evie took Gracie's slightly shaking hand in hers.

"Thanks, Evie," Gracie said, scooting closer to her.

It wasn't until this point that Evie noticed the glances she was getting every now and then from some of the other passengers. _Get a room_ , their look on their faces said. Instead of shrinking back and caving to the pressure, however, Evie squeezed their hands a little tighter and sat up a little straighter. If they needed her help to get through the train ride, then she was going to be there for them.

Once they were back in the car and on the way back, Evie remembered that they had no food in the house, so they made a stop by the grocery store. They stocked up on enough food for the three of them so that they wouldn't have to go to the store again for at least a week.

Later that night, after they had eaten, they sat around in their pajamas watching tv and playing video games for the rest of the night. When June tried gaming for the first time, she found that she wasn't very good at them since the controllers were difficult for her to use. Despite this, she still managed to have fun. They kept at it until around 1:30, when they were starting to fall asleep.

"Ok, I think that's enough for me for today," June said, standing up and stretching her wings out, "I'm gonna go to bed."

She turned to Gracie, who was almost completely asleep on the couch, and poked her leg with her foot from a safe distance.

"Gracie, get up," she said, "you should try actually going to bed tonight."

Gracie slowly stood, mumbling something about not wanting to go up the stairs.

"Come on, all the way," June said as she walked behind Gracie, giving her a gentle push whenever she slowed down.

"Goodnight, Evie!" Gracie yawned as she started climbing the stairs.

Instead of going upstairs behind Gracie, June stood at the bottom and waited for Gracie to head into her room and close the door before turning back towards Evie.

"Hey, you got a minute?" she asked.

"Sure, what is it?"

"It's just… I know I've been a little… unpleasant since we met, and I'm sorry about that. Even though we haven't known each other for very long, I just want you to know that I've been where you are, and I know what you're going through. It's tough enough as it is, but it's even worse when you have no one to talk to, so… I'll be here for you, if you want me to be."

"What? Where did that come from?"

June brushed her hair over her ear. "I was just thinking about the conversation we had earlier today. I had no idea what you've been dealing with, and I apologize for making you feel worse."

"Oh… well, you don't need to apologize, but… thanks. I appreciate it. Maybe I'll tell you the whole story sometime, but it's pretty late, so let's just get some sleep for now."

June gave Evie the kind of warm smile that, up until now, she wasn't sure June could make. "Ok, night Evie."

After June turned and walked back upstairs, Evie's smile stayed on her face as she got the couch ready for her to sleep on. She wasn't thinking about Gail anymore. She hadn't even realized that Marcus forgot to call her back that day. None of that mattered in that moment.

 _She called me Evie,_ she thought.

Just before she laid down, she realized that she didn't know where her phone was. She searched all over the room before realizing that she must have left it in the car.

She walked out into the garage and found it in the console of her car. Before she went back inside, however, she heard a loud creak from the attic right above her. She stopped and listened to make sure she wasn't hearing things, and several seconds later, she heard another creak.

"Hello?" she called.

She walked under the attic door and pulled the cord, opening the door and unfolding the ladder.

"Is someone up there?" she called again. Still no answer.

She looked up into the dark rectangle that was all she could see from the bottom of the ladder and felt a chill run up her spine. There was no way anyone was up there, but she still felt creeped out.

She climbed up the ladder just enough so that just her head poked into the attic. It was pitch black, with only moonlight coming in through the window across the room and the light from the garage below her.

"Is… Is anyone there?" She called. Yet again, nothing.

Evie climbed all the way up and began shuffling through the dark, reaching around trying to find the cord for the light hanging for the ceiling.

With a loud slam, the attic door suddenly closed behind her, leaving her in complete darkness.

"Shit!" she yelped.

Feeling around, she couldn't find the door again, and kept running into boxes and containers. She froze when she heard the same creaking from somewhere behind her.

"H-hello?" she said.

It was quiet for another moment.

She took a step backwards and felt something quickly tighten around her ankles, pulling them towards the ceiling at such speed that the back of her head hit the floor, knocking her out.

Evie woke up some time later, hanging upside down from the ceiling by some kind of thin string. She started breathing harder, not sure how this happened or who was in the attic with her. She tried to free herself, but the string was too strong for her to break.

"Sounds like you're awake," a voice said. "I'm gonna turn the light on now. Don't' freak out, ok?"

"W-wait, what- "

Click

Standing just in front of her was something that could've come out of her sweetest dream _and_ her worst nightmare: a creature with the upper half of a beautiful girl and the lower half of a giant dark purple spider. She held her chitinous arms out as if she'd just performed a magic trick.

"Ta-da," the Arachne said.

Notes:

End of Chapter 6! For those of you who read this chapter before I took it down earlier today, I actually posted it last night, but decided on a better route for the story to go the following morning. So I took it down and fixed it. I certainly like this version of the chapter better, hopefully you do too! If you didn't see the first version of the chapter, trust me… the version you just read is better.

So I've never attempted to write a chapter of this length before, so while I'm happy with the end result, I'm bound to have made some mistakes here and there. Whether it's the pacing or the dialogue, I'm sure there's some areas I need to improve on if I'm going to continue writing chapters this long. Be sure to let me know what you think!

Also, I'm fairly new to this site, and I've only just discovered that I can reply to reviews. So that's something I might start doing.

Thanks for reading, see you in chapter 7! 😉


	7. Roses are Red

Chapter 7: Roses are Red

Evie stared at the Arachne with wide eyes. What did she want with her? What was she going to do? The girl simply stared back at her, studying her closely.

"Wow... you're even cuter up close. I'd ask for your name, but... I kinda already know, Evie."

A million thoughts raced through Evie's head. Who is she? Why is she in the attic? What did she want? These questions and more rattled around in her head like the numbers in the lottery machine on tv; all trying to work their way out at once in a chaotic swarm.

"Who... how... w-what..."

The girl giggled and started walking closer towards Evie.

"I knew you'd get caught up in my web sooner or later. Now it's just you and me."

"W-what do you want with me?" Evie stuttered as the girl cut her loose from the ceiling.

"Me?" she answered, holding Evie up off the ground from under her arms, "Oh, not much. Just the same thing I've wanted for the past month or so."

Evie noticed for the first time a certain savagery in the girl's six eyes that sent a chill down her spine.

"You."

Evie screamed and shot her knee up, landing it squarely under the girl's jaw. The arachne made a small yelping noise and staggered back, dropping Evie onto the ground.

Evie quickly crawled backwards until her back was against the wall, her eyes darting across the floor looking for the way out. The girl had staggered back to where she was just in the shadows, but Evie could still see the glow of her eyes in the darkness.

"Heh... you caught me off guard there," she said, rubbing her jaw, "I didn't think you had it in you."

Something seemed off about how agressive the girl was being, but Evie couldn't quite put a finger on what it was. The girl punched the wall hard enough to break a hole in the drywall. She whipped her head back towards Evie, the hunger in her eyes seeming more intense than before.

"But that just makes me want you MORE!"

Evie screamed as the girl darted towards her at full speed. She got up and tried to make a run for the hatch, but she was stopped dead when the girl grabbed her by the shirt collar. She clutched at her throat as she was lifted up off the ground.

"Going so soon? Come on, we're just getting started!"

"P-please," Evie choked, "please just... just let me go!"

The girl put a finger on her chin and made a face as if she was thinking about it.

"Hmm... let me see... how about NO!"

She grabbed a handful of Evie's shirt and pulled hard, ripping it off and dropping her to the floor again.

Evie backed against the wall again, trapped in a corner of the room with the girl between her and the exit. She shoved her face into the scraps of Evie's shirt, inhaling deeply through her nose.

"What is WRONG with you?!" Evie sobbed.

There was a loud thud coming from the wall behind the girl, but she didn't seem to hear it.

"There's plenty wrong with me, sweetie," she replied, "but that's not what's important right now. Just relax and think about all the fun we're about to have." There were too many things that statement could mean, and none of them were a happy ending.

As the girl closed in on Evie, She pulled her phone out of her pocket and desperately tried to dial 911, but before she could make the call, the girl grabbed the phone out of her hand and crushed it in her hand.

"Let's not invite anyone else, yeah? Like I said, it's just you and me, baby."

All Evie could do was cry more intensly than she already was.

"What, you don't like me? I know you like girls, so that's not the problem. Whatever. Guess I'll just have to take you by force. Now hold sti-"

Suddenly a large figure came crashing though the wall behind the girl and tackled her to the ground. Evie quickly recognized the figure as Gracie, who must have heard her screams and came through the wall to save her. The two wrestled for a moment before Gracie got the upper hand. She grabbed the girl by the abdomen and one of her legs and hurled her across the room, sending her into a pile of boxes.

"You ok, Evie?" she asked, "She didn't get you, did she?"

Evie peered around Gracie's legs to see if the Arachne was out of commission or not.

"Gracie! Oh my gosh, Gracie! You saved me!"

She threw her arms around Gracie's waist, burying her face in her stomach.

"I just came out to get my phone and there was this noise in the attic so I came up to see what it was and-"

"You guys didn't do it, did you?"

"W-what...?"

Evie looked up at Gracie's face and saw the same hunger in her eyes as the Arachne had in hers.

"Gracie," she said, slowly backing away from her, "are you... feeling alright?"

"You didn't, huh? Good... that means I get first dibs!"

Gracie grabbed Evie's wrists and pushed her down onto the floor, sitting on her waist to pin her down. Evie tried to say something, anything to talk some sense into her, but she couldn't find the words and just stared at her in horror.

"Look at that," Gracie said, looking down at Evie's mostly bare upper body, "your shirt's already off. That'll make this a little easier."

She shifted Evie's wrists into one hand and held them above her head, and then began stroking her midriff with the other hand. Her hand felt cold against Evie's skin. She squirmed and kicked her legs, trying as hard as she could to break free, but Gracie was too strong.

"G-Gracie, please... why are you doing this?" she pleaded.

"Oh, I've wanted to do this since we met," Gracie cooed, "I just... really felt like tonight would be the night, you know?"

She grabbed Evie's bra, but before she could tear it off, a loop of spider silk tightened around one of her horns and pulled back hard, pulling her off of Evie and onto her back. She quickly scrambled to her feet and whipped around to face the Arachne, who was just climbing out of the pile of boxes.

"Hey cowgirl," the Arachne yelled with the other end of the string in her hands, "she's mine, so kindly fuck off!"

To Evie's suprise, in response to her challenge, Gracie squared up instead of backing down. She wasn't sure what was going on, but the Gracie she knew probably wouldn't have gone head to head with anyone this quickly.

"Definitely not," she snorted. "Who are you, anyway?"

"Name's Violet," she said, flipping her bangs out of her eyes. "Listen, Bessie, I've been here a little longer than you have, so I think I'm the one who should get first dibs on our host, here."

"Our host?" Gracie said, "You aren't even supposed to be here! You're just a hobo hiding in the attic or something!"

"Oh yeah?"

Violet pulled reached into her shirt and pulled out an ID card and waved it in Gracie's face as if it was a gold medal.

"Face it, baby, I've been here longer, she's mine!"

Gracie snorted and charged straight at her, trying to ram her with her horns.

As the two fought, Evie got up and hugged the wall trying to make it around them to reach either the hole in the wall or the hatch back to the garage. She had to duck a few times to avoid flying boxes, and even back up to avoid getting crushed between the two girls and the wall.

She had made it about halfway around the room, right in front of the window, when Viloet managed to bite Gracie hard on the arm. Gracie howled in pain and quickly started to feel the effects of Violet's venom. Violet stood back and laughed as Gracie began staggering around the room, swinging her arms wildly, soon to pass out from the venom. Eventually she stopped and looked right at Evie, who froze like a deer in headlights. In her state of confusion, Gracie lowered her head and charged straight at Evie! In a hit that knocked the wind out of her, she was flung through the air and right through the window! Violet screamed after her as she plummeted towards the ground. She screamed all the way down, covering her face right before she hit the ground.

Right before she landed, she felt something grip her arms and lift her back up and off into the night. Evie saw that a pair of hawk-like talons had gripped either arm. She looked up and saw that it was June that had swooped down and grabbed her mere feet above the ground.

"June!" she yelled.

June ignored her and continued to look where she was flying.

"June, hold up! Something's wrong with Gracie! I think she's hurt! And there's this weird spider lady living in the attic! June, we have to get help! We... June, were are we going?"

As June continued to ignore her, they flew up and over the treetops, and something caught Evie's eye that made the color drain from her face.

"To be honest, I don't really know where we're going," June said, "as long as it's some place private!"

In the light of the full moon, Evie saw the same look in June's eyes that she'd seen twice already that night.

"June... NO!"

"What do you think, Evie? On top of a building? In a tree? I don't care, really, as long as we can be alone!"

"June, please! Please don't do this!" Evie screamed.

"Oh it's happening, alright," she replied, "we've got all night, too!"

Evie squirmed around and tried to free herself, but just like before, June's grip was too strong.

"What're you squirming for? Look around you!" June laughed, "Even if you did break free, there's nowhere to go but down!"

June was right. They were high up enough that a fall would probably kill either of them.

"Don't worry," June said, "I'll go easy on you since it's probably your first ti- URP!"

June suddenly went limp as a dart from somewhere down below shot up and stuck itself in her neck.

Evie grabbed onto June's limp body and hugged it tightly, screaming as they dropped out of the sky. Just before they reached the treetops, three dark figures shot up out of the treeline and flew straight at them. Evie saw three sets of talons not too different from June's grab onto June's body and stop their fall. In the moonlight, all Evie could tell was that the three were harpies of some kind.

"Ms. McAllister, let go!" one of them said.

"W-what?!"

"It's ok, we'll catch you!" another assured.

Evie peeked down at the ground and clutched June tighter.

"You're crazy!" she yelled.

"Please trust us! I promise it'll be fine!"

Evie looked down at the ground again. Well, she thought, it won't be the first time I've been caught today.

She looked at June's sleeping face, kissed her forehead and let go. She only fell for a second before she was grabbed yet again by one of the harpies and carried off back in the direction they came from.

They started to descend near a street corner a couple blocks from Evie's house. There was a black van parked on the side of the road with M.O.N. printed on the side. As the approached, Evie noticed someone get out of the van and waved to them.

The harpy set her down gently on her feet before landing herself. Evie quickly looked around trying to find June, but she and the harpies carrying her were nowhere to be found.

"W-wait," Evie said, "what about June?"

"She'll be fine," said a voice from behind her, "guess you guys didn't prepare for tonight very well, did you?"

Evie turned around to find Ms. Davis leaning against the van.

"Ms. Davis!" Evie exclaimed. "Ms. Davis, Gracie's in trouble! This crazy spider lady broke into my house and bit her! Then I got thrown out the window and almost died but June- wait, where's June!"

Spun around frantically looking for June and the other two harpies carrying her, but they were nowhere to be found.

"Ms. Davis, what happened to-"

Davis put a hand over Evie's mouth.

"Evie," she said as calmly as possible, "I need you to calm down, ok? Everything's under control."

"What? How?"

"The whole reason we're out tonight is to handle situations like this. We check in at all the registered homestay houses to make sure no one stayed up too long and lost control. Most other liminals in the area managed to get to sleep early enough that it wasn't a problem. Once I saw the broken window at your place, I knew we had a problem."

"So... What happened?"

"I found them in the attic. Gracie was passed out on the floor with a bloody shoulder and Violet, the crazy spider lady, was laying on the floor next to the window crying her eyes out. I hit her with the same tranquilizer I hit June with just to calm her down for the rest of the night, so we shouldn't have any more suprises."

"Speaking of suprises," Evie said, "when were you gonna tell me about the extra homestay in my attic?"

Davis sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck and laughed nervously.

"Oh, right... that... here's the thing," she explained, "Violet's had some... trouble... finding a compatible host family since joining the program, since she has what you might call a type A personality. She's gone through a record 12 different families who requested she be removed from their homes. I just figured that since you already had two homestays on the way that you'd be able to handle her, so... I kinda snuck her inside and told her to lay low for a while."

"You... you could've just told me she was up there."

"Look, the point is you got this! Violet might be a little diffcult at times, but I'm sure you'll get along!"

"B-but," Evie stammered, "she... she tried to... you know..."

"Oh don't worry too much about that. She wasn't in her right mind. I'm sure Gracie and June did too, and you know they wouldn't hurt a fly! Well, at least Gracie wouldn't..."

"But Ms. Davis," Evie protested, "I think I already have my hands full... I'm not sure I could handle-"

"Nonsense!" she interjected, "I'm sure it'll all be fine!"

Evie could see the silent plea in her eyes and knew she didn't have much a choice.

"Oh... ok. I'll give it a shot," she said, bowing her head in defeat.

"Great! Come on, then, let's get you home. The girls should all be back in bed and sound asleep by now."

Evie sighed and hopped in the shotgun seat of the van. Davis seemed to have a little pep in her step as she walked around the side and got behind the wheel.

"I got a good feeling about this," Davis chimed, "I think you'll be a good fit for her."

"Well, she certainly seemed to like me earlier," Evie sighed.

"What? Oh, Violet. Of course. Yeah, that's what I meant."

Evie gave her a suspicious look.

"Ms. Davis, you don't have any more surprises planned, do you?"

"Something else I wanted to discuss briefly before I drop you off," she said, ignoring Evie's question, "I've seen stuff like this happen countless times. The girls probably won't rememeber any of what happened tonight by tomorrow morning. This also means that Gracie and June won't remember Violet at all, and if I were you, I'd keep it that way a little longer. Try to get to know Violet a little better, at least until she's comfortable around you. Then it'd probably be a better time to introduce them."

"Oh... ok. So I just... sneak up into the attic at night or something?"

"If that's how you wanna do it, sure. Just keep it rated G, ok?"

Evie's face turned red.

"W-what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing! I just like riling you up, is all."

Evie spent the rest of the drive home trying to figure out how she was going to explain away the bumps and bruises they'd all gotten, not to mention the wound on Gracie's shoulder.

"Sleepwalking?" June and Gracie said the next morning during breakfast.

"Yep! You guys kept bumping into things and falling over, and Gracie even fell down the stairs and landed on a fork!"

"A... fork?" Gracie asked, looking at the bandages on her shoulder. "I guess that makes sense..."

June stared at Evie suspiciously. "Yeah... I guess so."

A familiar creaking sound came from the ceiling above them, causing both girls to look up.

"What was that?" Gracie asked.

"Oh, probably nothing," Evie said, a single bead of sweat forming on the side of her head, "probably just the, uh... r-racoons."

This was going to be harder than she thought.

End of chapter 7! I just wanted to apologize for the long gap between chapters, but (hopefully) I'll be able to post more regularly from now on since I got a few major life events out of the way. Thanks a ton if you came back after the long break (or even if you just started reading), see you in chapter 8! ;)


	8. Just Be Yourself

Chapter 8: Just Be Yourself

"My name's Evelyn, what's yours? No… that's stupid…"

Evie stood in her bathroom looking at herself in the mirror. It had been a week since the full moon incident, and she still hadn't reintroduced herself to Violet yet. Every night, after Gracie and June went to sleep, she would go through this same routine, though she hadn't yet managed to work up the nerve to go up in the attic again. Every time she reached for the cord to pull down the ladder, she'd see the Violet's pretty face and the savagery in her eyes. She thought about how strong Violet was, tossing her around like it was nothing. She shuddered.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and scrolled through her contacts until she found Marcus's name, her finger hovering over the call button. She'd called him already about this problem. "Just be yourself," he'd told her in an exhausted voice. No doubt the least helpful advice of all time. She sighed and put her phone away again. "Maybe he's just tired of my shit," she thought, looking back at the mirror.

She flipped her bangs out of her eyes and tried again. "Sup? I'm... gah!"

She planted a hand on either side of the sink and slumped down. "So stupid..." she mumbled. Obviously tonight wouldn't be her night, either. She slowly stood up and trudged out of the bathroom and into the hallway.

"I think you're trying too hard," a voice said next to her. Evie yelped and turned to see June leaning against the wall.

"J-June?!" she said in a hushed voice. "What... h-how... why-"

"What? I heard you talking to yourself while I was trying to sleep. How? I'm a Harpy. We can hear pretty well. Why? I... well... I want to help you."

She smiled, but Evie was still looking for the crossed fingers behind her back.

"Help me...? But why?"

June tried to roll her eyes, but her face was red and Evie could tell how nervous she was.

"I just... look, don't worry about it, ok? Just stop with the whole rehearsing thing. You'll just end up sounding fake. Plus, it's keeping me up. Like I said, I'm a Harpy. I can hear you through the walls."

"Oh... ok. Sorry about that..."

June turned and walked back towards the stairs, but stopped just as she got there.

"Who is she?" She asked without turning around. "The girl in the attic. That's who you're trying to introduce yourself to, isn't it?"

Evie's jaw dropped. "H-how did you know about..."

June turned her head back towards Evie and tapped her ear.

"Creaking is one thing, but snoring and the occasional voice talking to itself? Either someone's up there or the house is haunted, and I don't believe in ghosts."

"She... she's..."

June put a wing on her hip and sighed. "Look, if you don't want to tell me, that's fine. Just... just be yourself, ok? If that's not good enough for her then... then that's her loss."

"Her loss?"

She huffed and turned around, looking down at her feet. "If she doesn't like you, then that's her loss! You're sweet, you're cute, you care, and I... I..." She looked back up at Evie, making a face as if she just realized she wasn't talking to herself.

"I-I'm gonna go to bed now!"

She turned and ran back upstairs, slamming the door behind her. Evie heard a loud creaking sound as Gracie rolled over in her sleep.

"Just be yourself..." she said to herself.

A few minutes later, Evie stood beneath the attic door in her garage, fidgeting with the headlamp in her pocket. She was trying to convince herself that she was ready, but like every other night, she was losing her nerve.

"Just be yourself," she said. She kept repeating it over and over again as if it was some magic incantation that would give her courage. She looked down at her hands which were still shaking. No luck.

She thought about what June had said. Not the advice, but the last thing she told her.

"It's her loss! You're sweet, you're cute, you care, and I..."

What was she going to say? She looked back down at her hands and saw that they weren't shaking anymore.

"June..." she said to herself.

She took a deep breath and reached up, grabbing the cord. It felt heavier than before as she pulled it down. As she climbed up the ladder, she realized that she hadn't heard any creaks that night.

"Maybe she's asleep?" She thought.

Evie quietly climbed into the attic and looked into the dark where Violet appeared the last time. Over her own shaky breath, she could barely hear soft breathing from over in the corner.

She pulled the headlamp out of her pocket and turned on the red lens, slowly tiptoeing over towards the sound, making sure not to bump into anything.

"H... hello?" She said quietly. The breathing continued, smooth and slow.

Eventually she reached the corner of the room, but she still hadn't found Violet. She heard a shifting sound and looked up.

"Oh shit," she muttered.

Just above her head, eight huge spider legs dangled from a hammock made of spider silk. Violet was definitely asleep, which gave Evie the sudden need to get out while she could.

She glanced back at the trapdoor, which was still open. The mere ten feet or so between her and the door looked like a mile given the circumstances.

Evie took one step back and froze when the floorboard she stepped on made a loud creak. Violet's breathing suddenly stopped.

"Oh shit," she thought.

She lifted her head up for a moment before laying back down, her slow breathing resuming shortly thereafter.

Evie breathed a sigh of relief.

She started another step backwards, but her foot got caught on a box and she tripped.

"Oh shit!" She exclaimed.

She crashed into a pile of boxes, scattering them everywhere and making an unfortunate amount of noise. She whipped her head back around and saw that the hammock was now empty.

"Oh shit!" She yelled.

She scrambled to her feet and made a break for the hatch again, but tripped over another box, landing on her stomach just shy of the door. She quickly crawled towards it, but was blocked off when a chitinous leg stomped in between her and the door. Evie looked up and briefly saw the gleam of Violet's eyes just before she slammed the door shut.

Evie felt Violet grab her by the shirt collar and lift her up.

"Not so fast, babe. Let's talk for a minute."

She tossed Evie across the room and into yet another pile of boxes. Evie shrieked and clutched her arm; something cut her when she landed, and it was starting to bleed.

"Don't get up," she heard Violet say from across the dark room, no doubt standing on the hatch to keep her from getting away, "like I said, let's just talk for a minute."

"Can you at least turn the light on?" Evie asked.

"No," Violet snapped. "Not yet. I... I want you to know who I am, not freak out about what I look like."

"Ok," Evie said, "I'm listening."

"Good. Look, I don't know exactly what happened last week, but I do know I didn't knock myself out in time. The fact that you aren't currently freaking the fuck out probably means that you already knew I was up here, so I'm gonna guess we got off on the wrong foot last week."

"You could say that," Evie said, her breathing getting shaky again.

"Yeah, I figured," Violet sighed. "Well, I guess that means we already know each other's names. I'm sure you already got the speech from Davis, so now you get my version. I've never been very good with humans. Everyone that I don't scare away at first sight won't put up with my... abrasive personality."

As Evie listened, she heard a defeated tone in Violet's voice. When Ms. Davis told her about Violet getting kicked out of different homes repeatedly, she had imagined that Violet was some kind of roughneck who didn't care who she upset or what the rules were. Listening to her talk, however, she seemed like someone who was struggling to fit in. An outsider. Evie knew that feeling all to well.

"I'm not asking to be your friend," Violet continued, "hell, we don't even ever have to see each other. I'd say that arrangement's been working out so far. I just... I don't want to get thrown out again. With my record, I'm sure it won't be long before they deport me and... well... let's just say going home isn't an option for me."

There was a long pause.

"Violet..." Evie said, "I'm not gonna kick you out."

"I've heard that one before," Violet replied.

Another pause.

"Just be yourself," Evie said under her breath.

"Violet, I... I'm not gonna sit here and tell you I'm different. I'm not gonna tell you we'll get along fine. I'm sure you've heard all that before too."

No response.

"The point is..." she thought of the day that Gail dumped her and sighed, "I've been thrown out before too. I've been in a perfect world and had it taken away, and I'm still dealing with the void that's leftover. That's not something I'd wish upon anyone. So... so..."

Still Violet said nothing. Evie could almost feel a certain intensity from the other side of the room, but she wasn't quite sure what it was.

"V... Violet?"

She heard the floorboards creak as Violet walked closer towards her.

Click.

Suddenly the room lit up, and Evie could see Violet standing in front of her, her long dark hair draped over one shoulder.

"Alright, Evie," she said, "let's give it a shot."

"Oh... ok," Evie said as her face turned red. She didn't have a chance to notice it the week before, but Violet was insanely attractive. She glanced down and saw that the shirt she was wearing looked awfully familiar. It barely fit over her large breasts, leaving her midriff exposed. The word "Kitteh" and the cute cat face were also quite stretched out.

"Hey... isn't that my-"

"Oh, you're bleeding!" Violet said, cutting Evie off. She quickly knelt next to her and inspected the injury on her arm.

"Here, let me," she said. She spun up some silk in her fingers and wrapped Evie's cut with it. As Violet worked, Evie couldn't help but notice that despite how dangerous her hands looked, she was very gentle and elegant in her movements.

"There. That should help."

She looked back up at Evie, their faces now about a foot apart.

"Y'know, you're even cuter up close," she giggled.

"Uh... t-thanks," Evie stuttered.

As the silence between them stretched out for what felt like ages, Evie began panicking internally.

"I... uh... so..."

Violet placed a finger on Evie's lips.

"Shh. Don't move for a second."

She moved her hand from her lips to her cheek, and swooped in and kissed her. It was a quick kiss, quick enough that Evie wasn't sure what was happening until after it was over.

"W... wha..."

Violet put her finger back over Evie's lips.

"That was just to get rid of the sexual tension."

She paused for a moment, and kissed her again. This one was longer, more passionate.

"That one was just because I wanted to."

She stood up and helped Evie to her feet. Evie's legs felt weak, but she wasn't sure if it was because of getting thrown or if it was the kisses.

Violet studied Evie for a moment, then seemed to think she did something wrong.

"I'm sorry... was that too forward?"

"No... well... I mean I don't know you very well or anything..."

"Hey now, that doesn't mean we're a thing or anything like that. It was just a heat of the moment thing. If you want me to really kiss you, you'll have to wait until we're actually together. M'kay?"

Evie had no idea how to respond to that. She just stood there staring at the floor.

"Ok," she eventually squeaked.

"I do have one more thing before you go," Violet cooed, lifting Evie's head up with a finger under her chin. "What say you... stay up here tonight? Y'know... with me?"

Evie felt her legs get even weaker.

"B-but I thought we weren't a thing?"

Violet giggled and brushed Evie's cheek with the back of her hand. "No, no, nothing like that. Spiders are ectothermic, y'know? I could use a little help staying warm up here... besides, I love cuddling. It's been a while since I had a cuddle buddy."

Evie could feel her head spinning as she considered it. "Well," she said, "I guess I'm getting a little tired of the couch."

"That's the spirit," Violet beamed, "you can be the little spoon tonight."

She helped Evie up into her hammock, and as soon as she was settled, she climbed in herself. Evie plucked one of the strings of the hammock, looking down at the floor below. She wouldn't die or anything if she fell, but it would definitely hurt.

"Don't worry, it'll hold. I promise."

She laid down on top of her, smooshing her breasts into her stomach and laying her head on her chest.

"What happened to me being the little spoon?" Evie squeaked.

Violet laughed out loud and rested her chin on Evie's sternum.

"Sorry babe, it's just a little tricky for me to cuddle up to you like that on a hammock. Now if we had a bed up here..." she slowly closed three eyes in an Arachne wink before laughing again.

Reached her head up and kissed Evie's cheek before laying back down.

"Friends can kiss their friend's cheek," she said as if she could feel Evie's discomfort.

As Violet eventually drifted off to sleep, Evie lay wide awake. This wasn't exactly what she expected would happen when she climbed up to the attic. Even so, a smile slowly spread across her face. Though she lay stiff as a board, hands at her sides, she was thoroughly enjoying herself. It had been some time since she'd been able to cuddle with someone, if you don't count getting crushed by Gracie, that is.

Gracie and June popped back into Evie's mind, and her smile faded. She felt bad for them. It was obvious that Gracie liked her, and while she wasn't totally sure if June felt the same way, she thought it wouldn't be a huge stretch to say so. She could see herself easily falling for Violet and her unique wiles, but she knew that part of her had feelings for Gracie and June too.

It wasn't who she'd end up dating that was the problem, she just wanted everyone to be happy.

—

The next morning, Evie woke up to Violet tracing little shapes and words on her chest with her finger.

"Morning, Eve," she cooed, "can I call you that?"

"Huh? Oh... yeah. I don't mind."

"Hmm... then I want you to call me Vi. Just when it's the two of us, though."

"Oh... ok, Vi."

A faint blush flared up on Violet's face.

"Cool!" she said, sitting up straight. "Well, let's get you down before your friends think you're missing. Unless..." she closed three eyes again, "you wanna hang out a little longer?

"Oh, I... well..."

Violet laughed and booped Evie's nose.

"Just kidding, Eve."

She helped Evie out of the Hammock and gently set her down on the ground.

"Hey, so here's what I'm thinking," Violet said as Evie opened the hatch, "I know I said earlier that we never have to see each other and whatnot, but... you know, being up here alone all the time can get a little... I guess what I'm saying is don't... y'know..."

Evie swiftly planted a kiss on her cheek.

"We can hang out if you want. That's what friends do, right?"

Violet touched her cheek and smiled.

"Yeah, something like that."

Evie climbed back down the ladder and stood in the garage. She and Violet smiled at each other before she closed the hatch. As soon as it shut, Evie wobbled a little. She might have looked smooth a second ago, but now she felt like she had to throw up.

"What's happening to me?" She thought.

Just then, the phone began to ring in the living room. Evie trotted our of the garage and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hi Evie! It's Davis. Listen, I hope I'm not imposing, but I'm gonna need you to do me a favor."

Evie furrowed her brow.

"What kind of favor?"

Notes:

End of chapter 8! Thanks again for reading if you've been following, sorry for the long waits! I've just got a lot going on in my life right now, but that doesn't mean I'll ever give up on Evie!

I'm thinking that around 3k is a good word count for me to shoot for. If I feel good about the chapter, I'll definitely go over that, but I think that I don't want to reduce the overall quality by focusing on writing a lot per chapter.

I'm glad to hear that some of you are excited to see where the story goes from here! Believe me, I'm just as excited as you are! Violet is definitely going to amp things up and make life a little more interesting for Evie.

Remember that the next chapter is always on the way!

See you in chapter 9! 😉


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